Top National League player Christian Yelich was back in the line-up on Friday.

But before the game, he was incredulous to have to explain why he was missing Wednesday with the Cubs in town and the possibility of reducing the central division of Chicago led to two games with one win.

The Brewers lost to the Cubs, 6-4, and came Friday 4 1/2 games.

It was a hot topic on social media throughout Wednesday night, and critics Yelich and his manager, Craig Counsell, extended to Thursday, which was a day off for the ## 147 ## 39; team.

Yelich, one of the Brewers' easiest and most accessible players, said that he was frustrated by what he had heard in person in Milwaukee and what he had seen on his Twitter calendar.

He even went so far as to respond to a tweet from a Cubs fan who falsely stated that Yelich had basically asked to come out Wednesday of training rather than taking off on Friday against a team of 68-73 Giants. .

"Challenging your competitiveness and your desire as an athlete is, for sure, frustrating," said Yelich. "We are all trying to win as many games as possible and I think this should be the main goal.

"The fact that it even becomes something we have to deal with here, I think, is ridiculous to be honest with you, but I understand where it comes from at the same time."

"I'm going ahead and I'm playing tonight."

Counsell has regularly given veteran players every day the previous off-team games to prolong their recovery, so sitting in this situation is nothing extraordinary despite the higher stakes.

Yelich – who finally left the bench to clinch a single in ninth place – ranks third in the team in games played with 126, but missed eight at the start of April after a stint on the list. disabled players. oblique right.

Since July 3, he has participated in all but five rounds, a series of 55 consecutive games, including nine additional games.

His 555 pitches on Friday were the best on the Brewers, and he's surpassing his career record of 695 set last season. He is a bona fide candidate to be named MVP NL with an average of .316, 27 homers, 85 RBIs and a .936 OPS.

"Things come up during the season you have to face," he said. "We have solved the problem, we have settled it, I'm fine, I'm playing today, I see myself playing for the rest of the season.

"I spoke to Counsel after the game on Monday and he said," I'm thinking of giving you a day on Wednesday "and I said," Okay, we'll talk about it later – we We're still a few days off – and we'll see where we are. It turned out Wednesday was a day when we just needed to clear things up, and we did it.

"I think we should focus on the season, the series, where we are as a team, I think we are in a good position as a team, we have three weeks to reach our goals." want to be, that's where the focus is, it should not be on all these other things.

"It's too bad that it seems to have been the case."

Counsell said that once he had begun to see signs that Yelich was worn out, the decision to rest him had become obvious.

"It was four days ago when fatigue had just settled in," he said. "So we and our staff must recognize this, as we recognized four days ago.

"We pushed him, then we got to a point where we're not going to insist on that any more, because we're going to be hurt, we're going to be hurt, and for me, we're going to change the game. . " as he does things.

"You have to weigh the costs and the benefits, and that reached a point, for me – and we recognized it earlier and tried to continue – that we had to give it the day.

"It's the right thing to do, you have to make those decisions, it's a match, and there will be other players who are very good and play."

The public outcry is nothing new for Counsell, who had to explain his deployment of Josh Hader with several points this season, including last weekend.

"I think we're just at the stage of the season where everyone wants to win," he said. "We have an overreaction to some things, and that's good, it's part of it, we'll make our decisions here for the rest of the year, and there will be more difficult decisions."

"And you will not love them all."

Yelich and Counsell both noted that Hernán Pérez had scored 1 of 3 with a marked run in the right field in place of Yelich on Wednesday, and Curtis Granderson came off the bench to hit a two-run homer in Pérez's place.

"I think the interviewees who are not in this building, they are not with us and they do not understand where we are as a team," Yelich said. "They can say what they want to say, it's unfortunate that they even believe that as a team we would not try to win every game possible, whether it's the Cubs or the Giants. or whoever it is. " playing.

"Every match for us has the same importance.They all count for us.I think what should be focused, that's how we won five series in a row now.We control our own destiny, I guess you could say, during the rest of the season. "